Book Review: This Adventure Ends

It’s a week of reading contemporaries! I’ve wanted to read more from Emma Mills ever since I read Foolish Hearts several months ago. I loved that one, and felt a strong connection to the main character. Between her two previous titles, This Adventure Ends is the one that interested me the most.

The Summary

Sloane’s family moves from New York to Florida. She expects to live her new life with no friends, but under weird circumstances finds friendship with social media influencer Vera and Vera’s tense group of friends, including Vera’s brother Gabe. When a painting from Vera and Gabe’s late mother is accidentally sold, Sloane finds purpose in attempting to track down the missing painting.

The Analysis

Truthfully, I thought I would love this book moreso for the art hunt. The mystery right there sounded so interesting! Though the hunt is part of the story, it isn’t front and center like I thought it would be. This is a character-driven story, and the mystery only serves to move along the characterization. Even though I came for the mystery, however, I was happily surprised to find myself in the middle of a character story. My favorite stories are those with well-developed characters, and this one has a lot of those.

Another surprise from this story? Sloane is a different character from Claudia in Foolish Hearts, with who I share many similarities, yet I still found myself identifying a lot with Sloane. Emma Mills must know me because she keeps writing characters that deeply identify with my soul. This has happened with book characters before…but two from the same author? That’s pretty surreal.

Another factor of note is this story’s focus on fanfiction. I went through a deep fanfiction phase around my late high school, early college days. I absolutely adore when authors incorporate fandom life in books. I especially appreciate the fandom in this book seems suspiciously like the one for MTV show Teen Wolf. Hmm.

Like Foolish Hearts, this title did have some plot threads that pulled it down. I wasn’t particularly interested in the Remy/Aubrey relationship drama, and slogged through those sections.

In the end, however, I really enjoyed this one. It’s funny and cute and the kind of fluffiness I want from my contemporaries.